Persevere in Praise

His praise shall continually

be in my mouth.

Psalm 34:1

...let us continually offer up a

sacrifice of praise to God...

Hebrews 15:15

My Word of the Year is PERSEVERE and I'm finding so many scriptural applications for it that I'm truly fascinating by looking at one word and seeing how it plays out in God's Word.  For the post today I traveled down one path of my word map to look more carefully at persevering in praise.  Very enlightening in that the Bible has so many examples of the faithful who persevered in praising God in spite of their hardships, during times of loss and grief, when praise was truly a painful sacrifice to a great and Holy God. 

Perseverance intertwines patience and persistence.  We are to keep on praising with a steadfastness that will not wane or waver when deep waters rise.  I collected only a few personally significant verses here in my little Travelers' Notebook, a place where I'm trapping a number of ways I'm exploring my WOY. 

We all know how much easier it is to praise when God answers our prayers, when He blesses us, when He gives us the desire of our hearts.  It's hard...it's a sacrifice offered in pain and anguish to praise Him when we are left brokenhearted and empty handed.  I've been in both places, haven't you.  Broken, shattered, so empty I wasn't sure there was breath in my lungs.  But I found breath...and I made choices to use the little air I had left to offer praise.  He breathed blessing back into me.  More praise...more filling.  God works that way!   It was a delightful surprise when the scripture from Habakkuk 3:19 was at the bottom of this page when I turned to my empty canvas.  How appropriate!

The Lord God is my strength, my personal bravery,

and my invincible army!

Is that not beautiful, powerful, encouraging, lifting....it leaves me with a nearly breathless, "WOW GOD!"  God is our strength and when we think we are too weak or drained or broken to praise, He will give strength to the willing heart.  If we desire praise over our brokenness, He will gives us eyes to see the blessings in the thorns, the beauty in the ashes, the praise in the valley.  I know what He has done for me each time I've chosen surrendered praise...He has WOWED me with who He is.  And I know He will do it again.  I know I will break again, I know I will hurt more than I can now imagine, but through the hope and strength Christ gives me, I know He will meet me there like He always has and He will bring me through the rain and give me a song as the thunder echoes the beat of His love.  He will be my strength...and I will praise Him.  He will be my personal bravery...and I will praise Him.  He will be my invincible army...and I will praise Him.  

I will praise the Lord while I live;

I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. 

Psalm 146:2

Design Details: 

I created a "rainy" background by using a very dry brush and acrylic paints.  I stamped the other images in a coordinating Distress Oxide ink.  

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Sets Used:

Typewriter Block Alpha

Healer of My Heart

I Am Loved

How Tweet

Women of Praise

You, Lord, Raise Me Up!

But you, O Lord, be gracious to me,

and raise me up...

Why are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God for a shall again praise him,

my salvation and my God.

Psalm 41:10, 42:5

If we are honest, we have to confess there is much in this life to get us down, so weary us, to confuse and create turmoil within.   I think of Hannah in 1 Samuel and how she suffered to the point of deep depression over her life's circumstances. Or what about Elijah, so frightened by the evil power and death threats of Jezebel that he ran as far away as he could and begged God just to take his life.  We experience enemy assault, the pressures of life, loss, and tiredness and we can certainly understand being downcast and wanting to run away.  And at the very moment we feel ourselves losing our grip, God grabs hold!

God promises again and again that he will not leave us or forsake, that we never have to figure out life on our own.  He will come to us at our point of need and raise us up.  He will lift us by his mighty hand above our circumstances to see things from his perspective.  He will walk with us in the middle of trouble and he will absorb all that would harm us if we relinquish all to him.  

In God there is always, forever hope.  He will raise us up.  Once we surrender to his Lordship, we can never be defeated.  The victory is already ours.  If you feel like you're falling, look up, reach out to God and let him grip you and lift you up. 

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Design Detail:

• watercolor paints on the background, flamingo and the heart-balloons applied with a water brush
• texture was created with a stamp
• Sets Used:

 Candy Hearts

 Be a Flamingo

Come into His Presence

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
    let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
    let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

Psalm 95:1-2

God is omnipresent--present in reality at all times.  Every believer also has the reality of the indwelling Holy Spirit...God present in us.  So why would scripture allude to a "coming into his presence" as though we could be away from it?  

We've had an absolutely stunning fall around our home place this year.  One breathtaking scene after another appears all along the roads in the short distances we travel nearly every day.

I don't know why, but fall brings me into the presence of God in fresh ways every season.  He created me to love color, so when He displays the splendor of His artistry as these photos barely capture, I am so awed by Him.  I know God is always near me, but there are times when I "come into His presence."  These are times I feel closer, I move closer to Him in prayer or through something His Word speaks to me.   

There have been times when I've been brokenhearted and I come into His presence for an extra measure of closeness and comfort.  When I hold my grandson while he sleeps and I ponder the potential of his life, I come into God's presence.  In worship at my church, I feel God tugging at my heart to forget all those around me and just come into His presence.  His presence is sweet, secure and surges with power. 

I fall so short of being able to adequately describe the wonder and awe of coming into God's presence.  But I know when I do, He is always there, always ready to take my spirit to new heights, to deepen my faith and broaden my vision of His plan for me.  And every time, without fail, when I come into His presence I have to bow in thanksgiving.  That incredible, breath-taking moment of feeling the rush of His presence pulls gratitude from the innermost reaches of my soul.  All that He is, all He has done, all He has planned for me, all He will accomplish...all of Him makes me want to run into His presence and always....always with thanksgiving!

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Design Detail:  I just had to pull out my fallish and very fun printable, Sunflowers and Pumpkins for this page.  These are so perfect for the season.  Here I used a clear, matte finish sticker version of my images.  And just because I could, I layered them right on top of each other.  A few simple splashes on the page and words from one of my favorite stamp sets, Incredible Blessed and a very simple page took only minutes to do.  

 

You can check both of these out on the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps store page.  

Lord of My Heart

 ... my heart [will] sing your praises and not be silent. 

LORD my God, I will praise you forever.

Psalm 30:12

It's been a whirlwind of activity in our household.  I was recently in a car accident and our plans changed radically in a moment.  It isn't what I would have wished...for anyone, but there are amazing stories to tell about God's intervention throughout the event and in the days that followed. I had to smile just the other day because in the retelling I was able to share about my amazing God again and again.  My praise for Him is such that I cannot be silent.  He is a great and marvelous God, even when life is hard, when things don't go according to plan, when we are hurt and things get broken.  God is working it all out for our good. I'm so grateful that He is Lord of my heart, Master of my eternal destiny and Lover of my soul.  He is my all in all and I will praise Him with every breath I take.

I took the elements from our current printable, Starry Sanctuary, and used them in my Traveler's Notebook instead of my Bible.  I love these small pages with plenty of room for praise.   I'm free to use acrylic paint with abandon and then handwrite my thoughts over it.  So many possibilities with these printables. 

The pocket on the left is from the patterned paper samples in the printable.  The pocket swings on washi tape hinges to reveal more journaling.  One of the printed tags fits in the pocket and well as more cards with my personal praises on them.   

 Starry Sanctuary Printable Bundle

Women of Praise

Sunshine Girl Alpha

Share the Gospel

"And the other seeds fell into good soil and produced...a hundredfold. 

...those that were sown on the good soil are 

the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit..." 

Mark 4: 8,20.

God has given each of us unique talents and select spiritual gifts. But the one thing He gives universally to believers is the command to share the Gospel. He calls us to different fields of service and gives us variety in the venue for sharing the Good News, but wherever he plants us we are to sow the Gospel message. I've heard some believers before say, "Evangelism is not my gift." He may not have called you into full time vocational evangelism, but we are still to share the message of Jesus with our family, our friends, our neighbors...anyone God puts on our path. His Spirit will tell us what to say and with whom to share. He creates opportunities every day if we but have eyes to see and obedient hearts.
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Art Talk: I created the background by tapping a piece of bubble wrap to my ink pad then pouncing the bw directly onto the page. If you do a dry pounce, it producing relatively distinct shapes. For something more splashy, you can spritz water on the inked bw before pouncing. The tab, paper strip and flower pot are from my Garden of Grace Printable Bundle available at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. The words are stamped with one of their sets, Send Me. Appropriate set, right?

 Garden of Grace Printable Bundle

Send Me

Instructions for Christian Living

God offers clear instructions for Christian living. We don't have to guess His will for our lives. He tells us all we need to know to live a life that pleases Him. When Paul writes to the Ephesians, he passes along God's instructions that will bring joy to our lives and will make us effective as believers. Examine Ephesians 4:17-5:20. To highlight the key instructions, I illustrated them in the margin.

1. walk in love--all our actions with others should be done in love
2. speak with purity--the spoken word is powerful; use it to glorify God. (This point is under the "walk in love" tip-in. It flips back to reveal another images underneath.)
3. Encourage others--a simple word of encouragement goes far to lighten someone's load and brighten their day. We should encourage others using God's Word.
4. Have a sweet, kind, loving disposition. Give to others, exercise Christian hospitality.
5. Be wise, holy, and spread the truth of God's World...not the lies of the world.
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I used the digi images that come in the Love One Another Printable Bundle from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. It's so flexible. You have the option to print and cut, or you can use the digital images that come in the bundle to create your own printables. It even comes with outline images so you can completely change the color palette for your personal craft projects. These are great for Bible art/journaling, card making, scrapbooks, travelers' notebooks...the possibilities are limitless.

Deep Calls to Deep

Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life. 

(Psalm 42:7-8)

 

Overwhelmed, broken, staggering with the weight of your sadness. How can heart-deep grief be this painful? In anguish you cry out to the heavens not knowing if you will hear a sound. You wait. Thunder in the background, then a roar that falls over your heart. God explodes into your spirit with His power, might, and presence. In waves His Spirit overwhelms you. The deepest glory of God, the deepest part of who He is, reaches down and grips the deepest part of your anguish. Deep calls to deep. And you know. You know His steadfast love is greater than all your pain, bigger than your doubts. Strength swells within you. The thunder changes to His soft, tender love song whispering through the dark of your night. You respond in prayer...sobbing, trusting, pouring it all out, feeling Him gently picking up your pain...and you feel Him cradle you. The God of your life has rescued you again.

Deep calls to deep...He will pour Himself into your heart.
Deep calls to deep...He sees it all, the depths of you and He wants all of it.
Deep calls to deep...prayer to the God of your life...and you find the Sovereign of the universe right beside you.
He calls. He calls to you.
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The background is all done in Kuretake watercolor paints. Letters are stamped using Chunky Alpha from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. Ink from Stampin' Up.

What a Savior!

For he grew up before him like a young plant, 

and like a root out of dry ground; 

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, 

and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men, 

a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; 

and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, 

and we esteemed him not. 

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, 

yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions; 

he was crushed for our iniquities; 

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, 

and with his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53: 2-5

I cannot read this passage of scripture without crying. It so powerfully shows what Christ was willing to endure for our salvation. We may forget that Elohim (God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is the author of all scripture. Therefore, Jesus "wrote" what was going to happen to him when God inspired Isaiah to pen this passage. When Jesus walked into the synagogue and was handed the scroll containing Isaiah 61 (Luke 4:16-21), he was being handed words he had authored. He was the fulfillment of Isaiah 61. Likewise he authored Isaiah 53, so as Christ set his face toward his final entry to Jerusalem, he knew EXACTLY what he was facing. He knew the hatred of hell was about to fall on him. He knew he would be ridiculed, tortured, and hung. He knew he would carry the weight of the sin of mankind, making the weight of the cross nothing in comparison. He knew how many lashes he would receive, he knew he would be beaten beyond recognition as a human face. But he also knew that enduring all this would open the way for our salvation. When we sing the words from the hymn What a Savior, we proclaim our knowledge and brokenness for what he endured for us. What a Savior that he would love us this much!

The background is sponged with three colors. I tore the heading from an old hymnal to put at the bottom. I used a new stamp (What a Savior) and inked it with the same three colors, blending the colors on the stamp. I added the fussy cut images from Good News set. Finally I used a splatter stamp from Grunge Elements and a shimmer ink from Stampin' Up! to create symbolic tear stains on the page. All the stamps are from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.


Sets Used:

 

What a Savior 

Good News

 

A House for God

For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.

  Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, 

to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 

but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. 

And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence 

and our boasting in our hope.

Hebrews 3: 4-6 (ESV) 

When my husband and I married, we had a small but precious service.  My sons were 7 and 10. I had sheltered them and provided for them for seven long years as a single mom.  Our older son barely remembered his father and our younger son was born as our marriage was dissolving.  They never saw their dad from that point.  So they were starved for the attention, love and protection of a father.  When dating David, I took such joy in how their eyes would light up every time this man of God stepped into our home.  God taught me many things as a single mom, and I would never trade that time of deep dependence on Him.  He took the ashes of my life and made it beautiful.  The day David and I married was a miracle for me.  But not just for me, for my sons too.  They had a daddy! When we said our vows, we asked the boys to come up on either side of us and they said vows too, promising to honor, love and obey their parents. Then our parents came up.  David's parents stood on my side and mine on his and they said vows too, to pray for us, to encourage us and to continue to be a picture of a Christian marriage before us.  That day we melded as a family...one big family with Christ at the center.  With all of us standing around the altar, my sister and a friend sang a popular song of the day, Household of Faith.  That was 30 years ago, and God has blessed our little household of faith in indescribable ways. 

Hebrews 3:4-6 describes the household of God.  From Moses, the faithful servant of God in the Old Testment, to early believers to today's, we are the household of God.  Our faith in the ever-faithful God holds us together.  The faith of Moses served as a testimony of what was to come in Christ.  His faith was counted to him as righteousness and ushered him to the front door of the household of God. Christ in us, seals us as His children and opens the same door for us.  Believers are a household of faith.  It is the indwelling Spirit of God that makes us a house for our God.  We are His temple, the place where He lives.  This passage shows that Moses was a servant to this spiritual household.  Likewise, we are to honor, maintain and protect the "good deposit," the treasure of the good news of salvation, that was planted in us.  I am a house for my God.  Sitting here even now, thinking that thought takes my breath away.  What a precious miracle.  Just as my boys were lifted high to enjoy the new status of sons when my husband became their father (he quickly adopted them), so too each of us has the joy and delight of falling at the feet of our good Father.  We stand arm in arm with other believers around the altar and sing, "We are a household of faith!"  

To illustrate this passage of scripture, I used watercolor paints and splashed on color, leaving lots of white, other than more color over the verses.  I combined sets from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps featuring the new February release, Love Your Neighbor, that has the most adorable collection of houses.  The Praise God sunburst over the house is from the set Exclamations.  I used the clouds in Love Your Neighbor to create the shrubs.  The fonts are all stamps, Classy Script Alpha, and the rest of the words are from Love Your Neighbor.  The crosses came from the Good News set.  I did all the coloring with PrismaColor pencils.

These are all amazing sets, so versatile and fun.  Follow the links to the store to get yours now.

 

 ***Love Your Neighbor***

NEW RELEASE

 

 Class Script Alpha

 

 Good News

The Mountain Where I Run

"In the last days
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established
at the top of the mountains
and will be raised above the hills.
All nations will stream to it,
and many peoples will come and say,
'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us about His ways
so that we may walk in His paths.'"

 Isaiah 2:2-3

I heard the song, King of My Heart recently on Christian radio and I was struck with the imagery of running to the mountain of God...high, lofty, lifted up. So many times when we go to God we are low, needy and downcast. But this verse in Isaiah celebrates the high, holy hill of God. When God overwhelms us with His good faithfulness, don't we want to run into His arms? He IS the mountain I run to when I long to be surrounded by His presence, His power, and praise Him. It's OK to go to the mountaintop! We need the mountaintop times with God. Of course He will stoop to meet our needs when we are low, but there have to be the times of praise, celebration, exaltation that take us straight to the high throne of our God, our mountain. So I would invite you today...Come, let us go up to the mountain of God! Let us praise Him there, worship Him there and learn from His unfathomable wisdom. Anybody with me?

To design my page I created my own mountain stencils with torn paper. I tore a sheet of computer paper into three layers of "mountain peaks." Then I used the negative edge...and sponged with lightest colors first from the top down. I added some stamped tree silhouettes (Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps--Scene Silhouettes:Trees) and used a dark gray ink to stamp those over the mountain base. I didn't want a stark black silhouette; rather, I wanted the trees to be a bit smokey. I did hand lettering to capture part of the lyrics from the song.

Love God's Word

With my whole heart I seek you;
    let me not wander from your commandments! 

 I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. 

 Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes! 

With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. 

In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches^.

 I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. 

 I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.

 Psalm 119:10-16

 

If we really love God's Word we will seek Him and His direction through it. We will treasure the gift of His Word and hide it in our hearts (memorize scriptures) so when tempted to wander from His commands the Spirit will bring the Word to our mind and we are strengthened through it. When we become students of God's Word we move to disciples...following what it says. Instruction is empty if we don't follow it, live by it, set our course by it. Loving God's Word is more than the journaling and art work we do in its pages. Loving His Word means we rejoice and delight in what He shows us through it. His Word becomes rich in our souls and we delight in finding God through the Word, living it and proclaiming it to others...both the beauty in it and the judgments of it. We embrace the whole counsel of His Word and it stays on our hearts and in our minds always. 

I used watercolor paints and bubble wrap to create the background drying between the two colors. The top portion is a digital stamp (Love God's Word) from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps and I used it as a traceable then colored parts of it with Copic markers. The lower half contains stamped words, also from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps (Send Me). I used watercolor paint to highlight the passage using a brush, then accented the page with Washi tape, and a clip with ribbon.

The Foundation of Prayer

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 

 Let your graciousness be known to everyone. 

The Lord is near. Don’t worry about anything, 

but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, 

let your requests be made known to God. 

And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, 

will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 

(Philippians 4:4-7, HCSB)

Prayer is a foundational plank in the life of a believer. However, I believe there are approaches to prayer that make all the difference in their effectiveness. When I'm in a stew and go frantically before the Lord, tugging on His sleeve like an impatient child, my prayers are likely to be ineffective. If I go to the throne with confidence that He will take my burden, fight my battles, and is in charge of my circumstances my heart is trusting and a peace as I stand before Him. I've started thanking God FIRST when I pray. One thing that does is to remind me of all that God has already done, the faithfulness of His direction in my life. I will often recount before Him the big answers to prayers in my life. It's like a journey to all the altars of remembrance and praise I've built in my heart over the years. It definitely set a climate for my prayers that was very different than coming wrapped in frantic,impatient chaos. 

I love the last part of the verse that promises a change in our mind and hearts as a result of prayer. I've seen a poster with the adage, "Prayer may not change your circumstances, but it will change YOU." So true, right? God desires to guard our hearts from the frantic worry and frenzied impatient control we often assume over our circumstances. Prayer is a release. It's a release of control, a release of attitudes and mindsets that only hinder us from walking confidently in the Spirit. What God gives us when we pray, is a new covering of Jesus! He wraps Himself around us and protects our hearts and minds. Prayer is HUGE, it is power, it is a path to abiding with the Sovereign of the universe who lovingly created us and keeps us. Prayer creates a heart that rejoices...I'll say that again. We can rejoice ALWAYS in the Lord.

I used Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps (Stop, Drop and Pray), stencils and Stampin' Up! inks/markers, and washi tape.

 

 

Stop, Drop...and Pray!

Ephesians 6: 10-20 addresses the power we possess during times of spiritual warfare.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.  Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,  and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

Look at verse 18 again.  This small nugget laying among the other treasured weapons tells us that prayer hooks all our armor together and strengthens each piece. I have a dear loved one going through an intense spiritual battle. The most significant thing I can do is pray, pray, pray and encourage them to pray and be immersed in God's Word. My page might seem a little dark, but I really wanted to express the dark, chaos that comes near to us when a real battle is in full assault. I put the section regarding our impenetrable armor in a light, bright color to signify the certain hope for victory that is ours. We will win because the victory is His and He's already won it!

I used Sweet and Sassy Stamps: Stop, Drop and Pray, Chunky Alphabet, Mini Grunge Type Alpha.

Faithfully Endure!

And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.  

But the one who endures to the end will be saved.  

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed 

throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, 

and then the end will come.

 Matthew 24:12-14 (Jesus)

This passage contains some of the final instructions and answers Christ gives to his disciples before being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Here, he sits on the Mount of Olives engaging in a very private, personal conversation with the disciples.  They have finally understood that Jesus is preparing to die, but that he will come back to them.  But they also know that there will be an end to "all things." So they ask him what signs there will be so they can anticipate those events. Jesus then explains the turmoil that must come, the persecution, wars and conflicts, natural disasters...in short, he describes how the whole earth will groan as the end approaches. Jesus never avoids the full truth about the life of one who follows him.  He has already explained that believers will still have troubles, that the world would fight against our beliefs and that ultimately for those who live in the end times, hardships will increase.  So how are we to live in the face of increasing hardship for Christians?

The Christian walk requires endurance.  Whether or not we are living in the last days, we all experience mountain top highs and deep valley lows in our journey. God calls us to keep going, to not give up, to not lose faith. Galatians 6:9 says, And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.  And James tells us in the first chapter of his book that we are even to "count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds."  I love that Jesus has given us his holy Spirit to fill us with joy, strength, wisdom, and the faith to endure.  Without the presence of Christ in our lives, these trials would be impossible to endure.  We never have to keep going under our own strength.  God always....ALWAYS provides for us.
  
Unfortunately, there are many nominal believers, those who say "Lord, Lord" but don't have a personal, heart-transforming, abiding relationship with the sovereign Savior, and Jesus says they will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 7:21-23).  These are the ones who will fall away; their enthusiasm for Christ will fade and they will choose the way of the world rather than the life of a disciple.  Jesus knows we will have times of weakness, and he knows we will not be perfect.  But if the Spirit of the living God is in our hearts, he will help us endure.  We are sealed; we are HIS, and nothing can snatch us from his hand. Our security rests not in what we say we believe or how we act (there are many moral unbelievers); rather, our security rests in what Christ has done in our hearts.  I'm thanking God today that I am HIS!

 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.   

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; 

no one will snatch them out of my hand.  

 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; 

no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one.

John 10:27-30

To create my page, I stamped the images first and colored them with PrismaColor pencils, layering and shading.  Then I did the background with watercolor paints, and finally did the hand lettering.  I used the new set from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps called Whimsy Bouquet, by stamp designer Rebecca Rios.